Big Gift To Southern Negroes
April 27, 1907
Summary
A sum of $1,000,000 is donated by Miss Anna T. Jeanes for the sole purpose of improving southern black rural and community schools.
Transcription
Big Gift To Southern Negroes
Philadelphia Quakers to Establish Rudimentary Schools.
Gives $1,000,000 as Endowment
Philadelphia, April 24.-A gift of $1,000,000 for the establishment of a fund for rudimentary schools for southern negroes was announced here. The donor is Miss Anna T. Jeanes, a Quakeress of this city. Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee institute, and Hollis Burke Frissell, president of the Hampton Normal and industrial Institute, are named as trustees of the fund, but neither of the institutions they represent will share in the gift. The income of the $1,000,000 is to be used for the sole purpose of assisting in the “Southern United States community, country and rural schools for the great class of negroes to whom the small rural and community schools are alone available.” The deed of gift was executed, and in it Mr. Washington and Mr. Frissell are empowered to appoint a board of trustees in connection with the fund. The Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lieges and Granting Annuities of this city, will act as fiscal agent for the trustees.
Miss Jeanes, the donor, is about 80 years of age, and comes from an old and wealthy family that has been prominent for more than a century in the Society of Friends. She has long been interested in the welfare of the negro and has been a contributor to institutions for their education. She has known Mr. Washington for a decade.
In transcribing the $1,000,000 to the trustees, Miss Jeanes states that “trusting and believing in the practicable and far-reaching good that may result from the moral and elevating influence of rural schools for negroes in the southern states, taught by reputable teachers, do hereby appoint Booker T. Washington, of Tuskegee, Alabama, and Hollis Burke Frissell of Hampton, Virginia, and their successors in the trust appointed and created as hereinafter directed, the trustees of an endowment fund in perpetually of $1,000,000, which is hereby created, to be known as “The Fund For Rudimentary Schools For Southern Negroes,” he income thereof shall be devoted to the sole purpose of assisting, in the Southern United States, community, country and rural schools for the great class of negroes to whom the small rural and community schools are alone available.
“Should the said Booker T. Washington or the said Hollis Burke Frissell die or decline to serve before they shall have established the board of trustees of said endowment fund, or if for any reason the same shall not be constituted by them within a period of six months from this date, then I request and empower the trustees of the Tuskegee Normal and create from members of their own boards a special board of trustees to act as trustees of the said endowment fund in perpetuity hereby created; and I direct that such board shall apply the income upon the said fund in like manner solely toward the maintenance and assistance of rural, community and assistance of rural, community and country schools for the southern negroes and to encourage moral influence and social refinement which shall promote peace in the land and good will among men.”
Philadelphia Quakers to Establish Rudimentary Schools.
Gives $1,000,000 as Endowment
Philadelphia, April 24.-A gift of $1,000,000 for the establishment of a fund for rudimentary schools for southern negroes was announced here. The donor is Miss Anna T. Jeanes, a Quakeress of this city. Booker T. Washington, head of the Tuskegee institute, and Hollis Burke Frissell, president of the Hampton Normal and industrial Institute, are named as trustees of the fund, but neither of the institutions they represent will share in the gift. The income of the $1,000,000 is to be used for the sole purpose of assisting in the “Southern United States community, country and rural schools for the great class of negroes to whom the small rural and community schools are alone available.” The deed of gift was executed, and in it Mr. Washington and Mr. Frissell are empowered to appoint a board of trustees in connection with the fund. The Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lieges and Granting Annuities of this city, will act as fiscal agent for the trustees.
Miss Jeanes, the donor, is about 80 years of age, and comes from an old and wealthy family that has been prominent for more than a century in the Society of Friends. She has long been interested in the welfare of the negro and has been a contributor to institutions for their education. She has known Mr. Washington for a decade.
In transcribing the $1,000,000 to the trustees, Miss Jeanes states that “trusting and believing in the practicable and far-reaching good that may result from the moral and elevating influence of rural schools for negroes in the southern states, taught by reputable teachers, do hereby appoint Booker T. Washington, of Tuskegee, Alabama, and Hollis Burke Frissell of Hampton, Virginia, and their successors in the trust appointed and created as hereinafter directed, the trustees of an endowment fund in perpetually of $1,000,000, which is hereby created, to be known as “The Fund For Rudimentary Schools For Southern Negroes,” he income thereof shall be devoted to the sole purpose of assisting, in the Southern United States, community, country and rural schools for the great class of negroes to whom the small rural and community schools are alone available.
“Should the said Booker T. Washington or the said Hollis Burke Frissell die or decline to serve before they shall have established the board of trustees of said endowment fund, or if for any reason the same shall not be constituted by them within a period of six months from this date, then I request and empower the trustees of the Tuskegee Normal and create from members of their own boards a special board of trustees to act as trustees of the said endowment fund in perpetuity hereby created; and I direct that such board shall apply the income upon the said fund in like manner solely toward the maintenance and assistance of rural, community and assistance of rural, community and country schools for the southern negroes and to encourage moral influence and social refinement which shall promote peace in the land and good will among men.”
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Right Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Benton Camper
Citation
“Big Gift To Southern Negroes,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed February 19, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/488.